Airline Passengers Stranded by Airline and FAA
Last month I wrote this about the FAA, "Since Bushites are not concerned with consumer safety, they cannot be bothered to manage even the FAA and air travel competently. (Most of Bush's corporate cronies have private jets anyway which he will use after leaving the perks of Air Force One behind so King George doesn't care about the other 98% of the American people.)
"From the AP, 'The Federal Aviation Administration should 'clean house from top to bottom' and has too cozy a relationship with the airlines, the head of a congressional committee investigating airline safety inspections said Friday.
" 'The problems have led to the sort of lax enforcement that allowed Southwest Airlines Co. to fly at least 117 aircraft past mandatory inspection deadlines,' said Rep. James Oberstar, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman.
"From the AP, 'The Federal Aviation Administration should 'clean house from top to bottom' and has too cozy a relationship with the airlines, the head of a congressional committee investigating airline safety inspections said Friday.
" 'The problems have led to the sort of lax enforcement that allowed Southwest Airlines Co. to fly at least 117 aircraft past mandatory inspection deadlines,' said Rep. James Oberstar, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman.
"Oberstar also said he believes similar violations may have occurred involving other airlines, but that those who have such evidence are afraid to come forward."
Now this report from the NYTimes today, "American Airlines canceled another 900 flights on Thursday, or about 40 percent of its daily total of 2,300, after making only slight progress in getting its 300 MD-80 jetliners flying again.
"The MD-80s, used mainly on domestic routes, account for nearly half of American’s total fleet of full-size passenger jets. They were grounded Tuesday afternoon for re-inspection of the wiring bundles in their wheel wells, after the Federal Aviation Administration said that some bundles were not secured properly.
"The airline, the nation’s largest, canceled 460 flights on Tuesday and 1,094 flights on Wednesday, stranding thousands of travelers and affecting the plans of more than 100,000 people.
"The groundings at airlines like American, Alaska, Delta and Southwest have resulted from a broader round of inspections, ordered by the F.A.A., to determine whether the airlines have complied with past directives to check airplane structures, wires, electronics and other components.
"On Thursday, a Senate aviation subcommittee will meet to raise safety concerns, one week after a hearing by a House subcommittee into the failure by Southwest to stop flying 40 planes that had not been properly inspected.
"The agency has recommended a $10.4 million fine against Southwest, whose co-founder, Herbert D. Kelleher, and chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, were questioned for hours by the subcommittee.
"One of the witnesses expected at the hearing on Thursday is Nicholas A. Sabatini, the associate administrator for aviation safety. Mr. Sabatini and two other F.A.A. officials received a scathing letter last week from Mr. Oberstar, contending that they had tried to mislead Congress about the agency’s procedures and that the agency was too accommodating to the airline industry."
None of this would have happened if the FAA had done its job properly and effectively and the airlines had done theirs.
However, Dubya and his administration are making one of the egregious characteristics of the Reagan administration even worse: deregulation by and weakening to the point of destruction so called federal regulatory agencies like the FAA.
Bush administration hallmarks include: profits before people and their safety; elimination or weakening of government regulations of corporations like airlines and politicizing those regulatory agencies that were created to ensure consumer safety and protection so that they no longer do an effective job but become the protectors and partners of those corporations the federal agencies should be regulating.
And impeachment is still off the table.
Now this report from the NYTimes today, "American Airlines canceled another 900 flights on Thursday, or about 40 percent of its daily total of 2,300, after making only slight progress in getting its 300 MD-80 jetliners flying again.
"The MD-80s, used mainly on domestic routes, account for nearly half of American’s total fleet of full-size passenger jets. They were grounded Tuesday afternoon for re-inspection of the wiring bundles in their wheel wells, after the Federal Aviation Administration said that some bundles were not secured properly.
"The airline, the nation’s largest, canceled 460 flights on Tuesday and 1,094 flights on Wednesday, stranding thousands of travelers and affecting the plans of more than 100,000 people.
"The groundings at airlines like American, Alaska, Delta and Southwest have resulted from a broader round of inspections, ordered by the F.A.A., to determine whether the airlines have complied with past directives to check airplane structures, wires, electronics and other components.
"On Thursday, a Senate aviation subcommittee will meet to raise safety concerns, one week after a hearing by a House subcommittee into the failure by Southwest to stop flying 40 planes that had not been properly inspected.
"The agency has recommended a $10.4 million fine against Southwest, whose co-founder, Herbert D. Kelleher, and chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, were questioned for hours by the subcommittee.
"One of the witnesses expected at the hearing on Thursday is Nicholas A. Sabatini, the associate administrator for aviation safety. Mr. Sabatini and two other F.A.A. officials received a scathing letter last week from Mr. Oberstar, contending that they had tried to mislead Congress about the agency’s procedures and that the agency was too accommodating to the airline industry."
None of this would have happened if the FAA had done its job properly and effectively and the airlines had done theirs.
However, Dubya and his administration are making one of the egregious characteristics of the Reagan administration even worse: deregulation by and weakening to the point of destruction so called federal regulatory agencies like the FAA.
Bush administration hallmarks include: profits before people and their safety; elimination or weakening of government regulations of corporations like airlines and politicizing those regulatory agencies that were created to ensure consumer safety and protection so that they no longer do an effective job but become the protectors and partners of those corporations the federal agencies should be regulating.
And impeachment is still off the table.
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